The film covers the first six months in the Pacific Theater of World War II, from the Attack on Pearl Harbor to the titular Battle of Midway.

The film stars Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Tadanobu Asano, Darren Criss, and Woody Harrelson.

In February, naval aviator Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Best and the Air Group of the carrier USS Enterprise launches raids against the Marshall Islands.

In April, after Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, Yamamoto, Yamaguchi, and Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo are permitted to carry out their plan to attack Midway.

In May, following the Battle of the Coral Sea, Layton, along with Joseph Rochefort and his cryptography team, use signals intelligence to intercept Japanese messages about an operation against an objective identified only as "AF".

Upon spotting the Arashi from the air, Wade McClusky correctly figures out the destroyer is rushing back to the fleet and leads his planes to follow its course.

Best is discharged from the Navy for his lung problems, incurred due to the use of faulty breathing apparatus during the battle and returns home to his wife and daughter.

[9] In July 2018, Luke Evans was cast in the film to play Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his role in the Battle of Midway.

[11] August saw the additions of Patrick Wilson,[12] Ed Skrein,[13] Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Tadanobu Asano, Dennis Quaid, and others to the cast.

[4] In the United States and Canada, Midway was released alongside Doctor Sleep, Playing with Fire, and Last Christmas, and was projected to gross around $15 million from 3,242 theaters in its opening weekend.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Midway revisits a well-known story with modern special effects and a more balanced point of view, but its screenplay isn't quite ready for battle.

[23] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail gave the film a score of 2/4 stars, describing it as "a Second World War epic that runs a comparatively paltry 138 minutes yet feels about five times as long", concluding that the film was "a choppy bore, its main source of intrigue centred around whatever New Jersey-ese accent British actor Ed Skrein is attempting as dive bomber Richard Best.

"[32] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film a score of 2.5/4 stars, saying that it "tells a story that's vividly and viscerally rendered, with all the entertainment value of a big, old-fashioned war movie", but added: "the kiss-kiss never really registers with quite the same impact as the bang-bang.

"[36] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described the film as being "so square, so old-school and old-fashioned, it almost feels avant-garde", adding: "It aims to celebrate heroism, sacrifice, determination and grit, and if you don't like that it really does not care.

"They had to hunt him down and bring him to Halsey", said retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command.